Former students of Urban Science make planning splash with proposal for a Central Park Airport

Just kidding.

A recent hoax, in which the Manhattan Airport Foundation proposed a new airport be built in Central Park, fooled both the Huffington Post and Inhabitat, a weblog about sustainable design.

The Foundation’s site is convincing. The site uses slick design, planning language and high standards of presentation, but funniest of all, justifies itself by touting the environmental benefits (with scientific studies cited) and the variety of stakeholders who support it.

That it is even possible to make such an absurd proposal so convincing speaks to the complicated nature of land-use decisions and urban planning in general. It reminds me of one team of Urban Science planners who technically made the numbers work in a land-use proposal by turning the Overture Center, Madison’s premier arts and cultural center, into a parking lot. They presented their plan to live stakeholders, who were predictably outraged, and that team learned a valuable lesson about thinking through all the consequences of their decisions.

Maybe the folks at the Huffington Post would benefit from playing Urban Science…